41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED

6. 1989 - The Jose Gonzalez Babyface Push

Jesus Christ.

On July 17, 1988, legendary heel Frank ‘Bruiser Brody’ Goodish was stabbed to death in the shower area backstage by Jose ‘Invader I’ Gonzalez - the booker of the World Wrestling Council, and his boss for the night - before a show in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

Lured there under the pretext of a typical meeting, Jose cut him multiple times in the intestines and liver. Goodish died on an operating bed in hospital hours later. There’s no doubt whatsoever that Gonzalez stabbed Brody to death; he only escaped justice because he claimed he acted in self-defence, and was thus acquitted. The integrity of the court case has been widely disputed in the aftermath.

Every wrestler present at the scene maintains this was premeditated murder. Tony Atlas said, on Dark Side of the Ring, that Jose’s request for a meeting was polite, and that Goodish howled in agony the second he disappeared from view.

The motive remains in dispute, all these years later. They’d butted heads. Brody was Brody, though, and Gonzalez was a booker. This was almost the defining thread of Brody’s career; he outright refused to job during his heyday in Japan, and frequently improvised his own finishes to stay over. S.D. Jones once relayed the story that Gonzalez - after taking a severe in-ring beating at Brody’s hands in a match years prior - said “one day, I’m going to kill that man”. (Dave Meltzer, per the September 24, 2018 Observer, believes that story to be exaggerated.)

Under a year later, Invader I was back, working for the same promotion - as a babyface. The death of his child, six months before the night of Brody’s stabbing, was played up in a bid to garner sympathy on his behalf.

Gonzalez was back as the booker before the trial, and presented himself as the returning, exonerated hero who captured championship gold on his first night back.